366 LE SAGE LESGHIANS ful, and his Nouvelles aventures de TacLmirable Don Quickotte (2 vols., 1704-'6), from Avella- neda's continuation of Cervantes, were also un- noticed. In 1707 he translated from Calderon the comedy Don Cesar Ursin, which failed at the Theatre Francais ; but a slight piece of his own, entitled Crispin rival de son mditre, had a brilliant success, and gave the first proof of his genius. His romance Le (Liable boiteux, a satire, the idea of which was borrowed from the Spanish of Guevara, appeared in the same year, and immediately passed through two edi- tions. He availed himself of his experience among the farmers of the revenue in his next play, Turcaret, to attack the corruptions and ignoble vices of financiers. This powerful body is said to have offered him 100,000 livres to suppress it, and was able to prevent its rep- resentation for more than a year. It had a reputation in society before it was produced on the stage, where it was received with the greatest favor, though its excellence consists only in its delineations of manners. His next work was the novel Gil Bias de Santillane (2 vols., 1715; vol. iii., 1724; vol. iv., 1735), a series of pictures of all classes and conditions of society and of life in Spain under all its aspects. The delicate delineations of charac- ter, the nervous and effective style, the skilful blending of the manifold portraits into one comprehensive picture, are among the merits which have made this one of the most popular of novels ; and it has been translated into all the languages of Europe. Its originality has been several times contested. Voltaire ven- tured to assert, with no reason at all, that it was taken from the Marcos de Olregon of Espinel. The Spanish Jesuit Isla asserted, what there are no facts to confirm, that it was originally written in Spanish, but was de- nounced and prohibited by the government, when the author fled to France with a single copy, which came after his death into the hands of Le Sage, The delay of the comedians of the Theatre Francais in producing one of his pieces caused Le Sage to abandon them, and to write light farces and comic operas for theatres of secondary rank. Either alone or with several associates he composed more, than 100 comic operas, most of which were exceedingly popu- lar. His principal later labors were Roland Tamoureux, an imitation of the Orlando inna- morato of Boiardo (1717-'21) ; an abridged translation from the Spanish of Aleman's
- ' Guzman de Alfarache;" the Aventures de
Robert, dit le chevalier de Beauchesne (1732), from materials furnished by his widow ; His- toire d' 'Ustevanille Cfonzales (1734), a free translation from the Spanish ; Vhe journee des Parques (1735); Le bacJielier de Salamanque (1736) ; and Melange amusant de saillies d' es- prit et de traite historiques des plus frappants (1743). A complete edition of his works ap- Ced in Paris in 1828, in 12 vols. Gil Bias been translated into English by Smollett, Proctor, Smart, and Malkin, the last being a revision of Smollett. Le diable loiteux bears in English the title of the " Devil on Two Sticks," though in the most recent editions it is called "Asmodeus;" and English translations of several of his other works have appeared. LESBOS. See MYTILENE. LESCARBOT, Marc, seigneur de St. Audebert, a French historian, born at Vervins about 1570, died about 1630. His earliest known work, Discours sur la reunion des Eglises d" 1 Alexandrie et de Rwsie d la sainte JEglise catholique, appeared ih 1599. Taking an in- terest in American colonization, he joined De Monts's colony in Acadia (now Nova Scotia) in 1605, and was actively engaged with Poutrin- court in establishing Port Koyal, till it was abandoned in 1 607. On his return to France he published Histoire de la Nouvelle France (1609), with a collection of poems called Les muses de la Nouvelle France. His history embraced a summary of Cartier's voyages and the French colony in Florida, as well as the more recent efforts at the north, including in detail that in which he took part ; a second edition, with additional matter, appeared in 1611, and was soon reprinted; and a third and still more enlarged edition in 1618, including La conversion des sauvages, first published in 1610, and Relation dernier e de ce gui c'est passe au voyage du sieur de Poutrincourt, about 1612. The second edition was reprinted at Paris in 1866, in 3 vols. English and German translations appeared in 1609 and 1613. He then seems to have pursued his profession as advocate in the French parliament, gaining the favor of President Jeannin, and of the chancellor Brulart de Sillery, with whose son, Pierre de Oastelle, ambassador to Switzerland, he visited that country, and published a po- etical account of it, Le tableau de la Suisse (1613). His last work, La chasse aux Anglais dans Vile de Khe, appeared in 1629. One of the poems in his Muses describes the defeat of the Armouchiquois Indians in Maine by the Micmac sagamore Membertou in 1607. LESGHIANS, a warlike people of the Cauca- sus, inhabiting the western portions of the province of Daghestan and some adjacent parts. They number about 300,000, and are subdivided into a number of tribes, speaking various dialects, some of which so widely differ from each other that the Tartar lan- guage has generally become a medium of con- versation between different -tribes. They never formed one commonwealth until Sha- myl succeeded in uniting them against the Russians. After his submission in 1859 the Russian rule was firmly established. Accus- tomed to a warlike life, the Lesghians inhabit chiefly mountain villages, which are difficult of access, and can easily be converted into strong fortresses. The Christian religion has not yet gained a firm footing among them. Their present belief is a kind of Mohamme- danism, which was taught by Shamyl. (See CAUCASUS, and SHAMYL.)
